IDK who Paul McGowan is, but does he have any science to back up his claims about sounds arriving "too quickly" for your brain to sort them out?
Also, do you have any evidence that can be replicated that softer wood absorbs more sound than harder does? If that's accurate (and it's not) what happens to the softer wood after is absorbs all the sound it can hold? Does it explode? Does sound start leaking out? And if it's saturated with sound, wouldn't it then be unable to absorb more sound and revert to the hardest wood ever grown? 🙄